Many items of electronic equipment are suitable for incorporating in local computer networks (home networks or otherwise) and participating, with other connected equipments, in the implementation of functions made available for the user.
Portable electronic devices, with their reduced dimensions, now enable significant mobility. The user can thus take them everywhere. The evolution of technologies specific to screens is such that images are now of very good quality on screens of reduced dimensions such as those available on audiovisual reproduction devices such as portable players, tablets, laptop computers and smartphones, for example.
The latest technologies used in making screens also enable access to large reproduction surfaces for fixed (non-portable) reproduction devices, such as television sets or monitors, for example.
According to usage and where he is, the user is therefore led to prefer to view an item of content on a mobile device, comprising a display of reduced dimensions, or a fixed device, comprising a display of large dimensions, better adapted to the visual comfort of the user, during the reproduction (the display) of the content.
Thus, a smartphone or a tablet appears well adapted to viewing an item of content when on the move, in a car or in public transport, and viewing on a large screen will very often be preferred for viewing a film at home, for example.
Recently, a feature has enabled the user to control, in a simple way, the reproduction of an item of audiovisual content available on an item of portable equipment by a fixed device and/or a device of larger dimensions by using a wireless connection. This operation will be called “display forwarding” in the remainder of the present document. Thus, an item of content captured (saved) using a portable device can easily and quickly be displayed by a reproduction device of larger (display) dimension when the two devices are close and both compatible with the connection technology used.
Thus the standardised WiFi Display technology, also known under the name of Miracast, enables a device of smartphone type to display its local content (that is to say saved in the internal memory) on a remote reproduction device, by means of a wireless connection. The WiFi Display and Miracast technologies both being built from the WiFi Direct technology.
Other proprietary solutions also exist and provide the user with the same features, such as, for example Air Play from the firm Apple, WiDi from the firm Intel and mirrorop.
In the paragraphs which follow, the “WiFi Display” function is described as a function for display forwarding by wireless peer-to-peer connection based on WiFi Direct and in a similar manner to Bluetooth technology enabling the broadcast of compressed audiovisual content to a remote item of equipment. “WiFi Display standard” will be used to denote the set of protocol elements defined in WiFi Direct and those specified in “WiFi Display” enabling the implementation of the functions of display forwarding as supported by the standard named Miracast. “WiFi Direct”, also called “WiDi” is a standard enabling two items of equipment to be directly connected to each other by WiFi link, without using an access point. The display forwarding function according to WiFi Display requires that both devices concerned are compatible.
WiFi Direct (WiDi) which serves as a medium for WiFi Display is itself defined by the “WiFi Alliance” as a certification or compatibility mark for the direct peer-to-peer WiFi connection function as described by the manufacturers' alliance “WiFi Alliance”.
Sometimes a user has an item of portable equipment which is compatible with WiFi Display technology but his other home reproduction equipment (in fact considered as fixed) is not. The advantages afforded by these user-friendly display technologies are not available to the user, except by acquiring new devices, this time compatible with a display technology such as WiFi Display. This may appear expensive to the user. Another solution consists in using a “dongle” device (a small peripheral device connected to a communication port) connected to a reproduction device. The “dongle” is configured to receive content according to the WiFi Display standard and to transfer the content to the reproduction device via a link such as, for example, an HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) digital audio/video interface. This therefore involves the acquisition of a specific item of equipment and in fact incurs an additional cost.
Many display devices are equipped to be connected to a local network, even though they are not compatible with the recent technologies for broadcasting content via wireless connection, and are also compatible with content sharing standards, such as for example UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)/DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance).